I'm glad you seem to get something out of what I am saying. I have no argument left, Pat. I thought what Trump did on January 6th after losing the election was one of the most insane betrayals of this country I have seen in my lifetime. I don't think I can think of another to compare it to. 

When that happened, my thought was this guy just put the exclamation point on how much he hates this country and our citizens. He had so set people against each other for his own gain that an out of control mob stormed the capitol chanting they were going to hang Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. 

It happened right before our eyes. No way I thought the guy would ever become president again after that. I thought that was the last gasp of Trump's grab for power. 

And yet here we are, he is again the president. Now with even more power than the last time, thanks to a corrupt Supreme Court, and the knowledge that he will now choose people to surround himself with that won't try to prevent him from committing crimes. He will choose people instead that will help him commit crimes.

Then I watched his campaign, Pat, and it was the strangest political campaign I have ever seen. He never tried to speak to or reach out to anybody outside of the most wacky in his base. Everything he said was basically declaring war on immigrants, Democrats, and Republicans that would not kiss his ring. 

He referred to people, regular people like David, Dan and I and others here that did not support him as sick, deranged, scum. He called us the "enemy within" over and over and over. Honestly, Pat, I thought that would turn voters away in droves. He talked about providing no aid to Blue States if they had a crisis. This is not someone that wants to be our president, I thought. Because the job is not to be president for some people, just the ones that voted for you, it is to be a president for all. To protect and defend the entire country and the constitution. Which by the way, he and his lawyers said he did not swear an oath to defend. 

I've always thought of myself as a patriot, a person that loves his country, a person that believed we as a country are going to stand up for each other and protect others that need our help. I thought that was what made us "great" but now we have a president that says he has no interest in any of that. He does not believe his job is to protect the entire country and he does not believe in the constitution, won't defend it, and won't defend our allies. He says he will protect only those loyal to him. Those that kiss his ring. He believes he comes first, everything else is not important. 

He said this was the last time you would even need to vote. 

I don't know how you took any of that, Pat, but I did not take it well. I woke up for the first time in my life wondering if I still belonged in this country. I woke up knowing that most people that went out to vote, voted for a man that would call his fellow Americans the enemy because they did not agree with him, would not vote for him, and would point out his rather massive flaws, mistakes, and yes, crimes. We have a president who openly stated, his lawyers said it in court, his job is not to defend nor uphold the constitution. It's worthless now. 

I never in my worst nightmares would have dreamed I would see the majority of voters vote for that. It's pretty horrifying. I don't know what will happen. 

Yes, as you have said to David, the sun will rise, but the sun rose on those concentration camps in Nazi Germany too. The sun has risen on all sorts of wild and awful abuse. It's just that some people dreaded what happened after that sun came up, because it did not bring the promise of a wonderful new day.

Of course, I desperately want David and I to be wrong. I would love for Trump to be a normal president that works for the people of this country and the safety of the world. He does not believe in these things though and it is likely what we saw on January 6th was just the warm-up act. He enjoys watching other people suffer. Just to see them suffer. He's said it and proven it with his actions. 

I don't know if you see it, if you ignore it, if it just does not matter to you. Your thoughts remain a mystery to me, Pat. 

But know this, it hurt to wake up knowing people, most voters, turned out to support this. Not because I hate Trump, but because I know what he says he intends to do to the people of this country and the world will be savage and epically cruel. I hope to all the gods there ever were, Pat, that I am wrong but man, it is looking grim.

This is why David and Dan speak harshly to you, Pat. They can see what is likely on our horizon. It was not a fight over transgender people playing sports, it was about what we stood for, together, as a country. Trump did what he does best, he divided us. He told those of us that would not support him to get out and that we could expect to be left behind by him. Now we are going to have a front row seat to what that will look like and all we can hope is somehow our institutions can slow him down. 

I don't know if we can stop him, he is going to wreak all kinds of havoc and inflict a lot of damage and all we can hope is we can rebuild from it. 

I don't know who it will be worse for, Pat, those of us that did not support him, or those that know they did once they understand what he is doing. He will make sure the levels of hate in this country are off the charts though, he is very good at that.